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The American Presidency

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America is one of the most politically well organized countries in the world. This is because it has a good constitution which guides all its political activities. The constitution spells out everyone’s political responsibility in America including the leaders who have got the various constitutional powers and responsibilities to ensure that the country is managed well. Among the political positions in America are the office of the presidency and the congress. The holders of these positions have got various political and constitutional roles and functions which are discussed in this write up. This write up also discusses the electoral process in America together with its pros and cons.

According to Smith, Roberts & Wielen (2011), American presidency is the highest political office which is held by the President of the United States of America. On the other hand, there is also the Congress which is a team of the political representatives from different geographical jurisdictions within America. In these two categories of political leadership, the roles and functions played can either be constitutional or political.

Among the constitutional roles of the president of the U.S is the responsibility of being the chief executive in the government’s executive branch. He, thus, has the responsibility of running the federal bureaucracy and enforcing the laws. The President is also the chief diplomat of the country. This means that he makes decisions over the foreign policy issues. He therefore assigns the ambassadors to the various countries. Additionally, Edwards, Wattenberg & Lineberry (2011) stated that the American President is the commander in chief of the army and navy.

Apart from the constitutional roles and functions of the president, he/she also has got political roles to play. These include the role of being the super politician. This is whereby the President is considered the leader of his political party. He performs this by selecting the national party’s chairperson and also by campaigning on behalf of the other party members (Edwards, Wattenberg & Lineberry, 2011).

The Congress, which is a legislative branch in the U.S government, is the body composed of the senators and the House of Representatives. There are 100 senators, while the House of Representatives consists of 435 members. The senators represent the states, while the House of Representatives represents the people of their particular districts. The Congress is the law making body and also ensures that the government is governed in accordance with the laws (Smith, Roberts & Wielen, 2011).

Smith, Roberts & Wielen (2011) further note that the other duty of the congress is to establish the lower federal courts and tribunals, which assist in the investigation and passing of verdict on legal matters within the country. Their function here is to debate and discuss the right courses of actions over the legal issues in the country, which may further lead to the amendments of the constitution. Another notable role of the Congress is the imposition of taxes and other duties. Also the congress is in charge of regulating both the international and local commerce. Their function is therefore to formulate the required logistics through the help of the government advisory bodies.

Politically, the Congress member’s role is to represent their various jurisdictional areas. This is performed by bringing key issues of their areas of representation into discussion. Also they are supposed to establish the rules of naturalization and bankruptcy.

However, the members of these two key political offices belong to different political parties. These parties include the Democratic Party and the Republican Party as the two major ones with other smaller parties whose major role is to help the political candidates sell their policies and ideologies. During the election period, the presidential candidates are nominated by their particular party delegates, thereafter the nominated candidates compete on the presidential elections with the other presidential candidates for election by the Electoral College, while the Congress members are voted by their area voters. In case none of the candidates fail to meet the required percentage for the win, then it is upon the House of Representatives to elect the President from the contestants. However, the American electoral process has got its pros and cons. The pros include the simplification of the voters’ choice, since only the major parties present the presidential candidates. Again the proponents of this process argue that this process helps protect the interests of the rural communities. On the other hand, the cons of this process include the possibility of giving the minority President. Finally, it leaves a possibility of the Electoral College depressing the voter turnout (Lonley, 2012).

In conclusion, the various political and constitutional activities in the American government have been made easy, since they are divided among the different political offices, which comprehensively handle the different roles and functions.